1. Field Of The Invention:
This invention relates to geometrical tennis lanes which are particularly suited for creating a practice and learning environment for the novice as well as the seasoned tennis player. One novel feature of the invention resides in the geometric construction of the lanes which exactly duplicates the narrow, restricted target area range of a full size, conventional tennis court.
The improved tennis lanes provide a convenient and economical means for practicing basic tennis techniques, thus allowing the tennis player to focus attention on his body and racquet. In particular, the tennis lanes of the present invention provide the tennis player with a means to develop proper ground stroke technique, utilizing and understanding concepts of tennis ball spin, racquet acceleration, ball speed, body lift, shoulder rotation, tennis racquet follow-through and elevation or trajectory of the tennis ball traveling over the net.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Presently, if a tennis player wishes to practice his tennis serve or other strokes, he has limited facilities available. Many tennis players practice with another player on a standard tennis court, but this has the disadvantage of using another player and a full-size court. A full-size court, however, does not allow the tennis player to maximize his time at practicing serves or strokes.
Efforts have been previously made to provide aids for tennis players. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,858,880 issued Jan. 7, 1975, relates to a plurality of rectangular-shaped courts, a central receiving court and a means for automatically collecting tennis balls.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,679 issued May 27, 1980, discloses a tennis practice service net which is described as useful in helping the tennis player improve his ability to stroke his serve consistently and with accuracy. This tennis practice service net is described as consisting essentially of a court net and an elongated rectangular practice service net overlying and co-planar with the court net, wherein said practice net inwardly of its ends and below its top being cut away defining an elongated rectangular opening over said court net.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,304 issued Mar. 13, 1984, relates to a tennis teaching aid for use on a tennis court. More particular, the patent describes a device suitable for use on a tennis court in combination with a standard net and net posts. The tennis teaching aid is described as a white target band simulating the top band of the standard net, but spaced above the top band of the standard net by a variable amount.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,317 issued May 9, 1978, discloses a portable tennis court which includes a net assembly consisting of two housings, wherein the net is contained on a reel assembly within one of the housings. The portable court is described as being readily assembled or disassembled into a tennis court.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,235 issued Dec. 16, 1980, relates to a training device for football, or other ball games. For tennis, the training device is described as advantageously replacing the traditional wall for training alone.
As can be readily determined from the above, there is an ongoing effort to provide teaching aids that will help the tennis player improve his tennis game.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a plurality of geometrical tennis lanes forming a circle or a semi-circle to help the tennis player improve his ability to hit his serves with greater accuracy.
Another object of the invention is to provide a plurality of geometrical tennis lanes forming a circle or a semi-circle with strategically placed targets adjacent to each other and co-planar with the tennis lanes side borders, which targets exactly duplicate the precise angle that a tennis player must hit the ball within during a base-line to base-line shot. Hitting the ball within these targets serves to encourage the tennis player to hit the ball in a straight line. This is important because on a full-size court, whether the tennis player is hitting the ball down the line or cross-court, hitting the ball in a straight line is half the game.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide geometrical tennis lanes containing a target area having three distinct target zones. These target zones duplicate the exact height of a standard tennis net, the top of the net and the area above the net.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide geometrical tennis lanes having ball-throwing means and ball-collecting means.
Finally, it is still another object of this invention to provide a means for practicing volley shots.
These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description in conjunction with the drawings.